aeolipile

aeolipile
/ee ol"euh puyl'/, n.
1. a round vessel caused to rotate by the force of tangentially escaping steam: an early example of jet propulsion.
2. a device for injecting the vapors of heated alcohol into a laboratory furnace.
Also, aeolipyle, eolipile.
[1650-60; < L aeolipilae balls of AEOLUS, alter. of aeolipylae gates of AEOLUS, equiv. to Aeoli (gen. sing. of AEOLUS) + pylae, pl. of pyla < Gk pýle gate]

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 steam turbine invented in the 1st century AD by Heron of Alexandria and described in his Pneumatica. The aeolipile was a hollow sphere mounted so that it could turn on a pair of hollow tubes that provided steam to the sphere from a cauldron. The steam escaped from the sphere from one or more bent tubes projecting from its equator, causing the sphere to revolve. The aeolipile is the first known device to transform steam into rotary motion. Like many other machines of the time that demonstrated basic mechanical principles, it was simply regarded as a curiosity or a toy and was not used for any practical purpose.

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Universalium. 2010.

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